Iran Video Special: How a Little Boy --- "Farnood the Truthful" --- Embarrassed the Regime

We turn to a children's show this week on Iranian State TV....

A group of children were asked what kind of activities they perform on their own. A small boy named Farnood proudly replied, “When I go to the bathroom, I wash my pee-pee on my own.”

The shocked presenter took a few steps back from Farnood, covering up his taboo reply with a non sequitur, “What do you do?! You turn on the washing machine yourself? No, no, no.”

Now Farnood is being called "Farnood the Truthful", with a Facebook page with more than 25,000 followers and comments that use his encounter as a marker for Iran's political situation: “On the one hand there is an honest little boy. On the other, an ugly woman who lies. They face each other and that is the reality of the Iranian nation. Honesty against lies.  Farnood has become popular among Iranians because of his truthfulness.” 

There is satire: “Iran’s Intelligence Minister said the fact that Farnood washes his pee-pee himself is one of the main factors of the [post-election unrest]. There are documents that prove Farnood received money from Mossad and CIA to do so.” There is dismay: "If the 20,000 fans of this page would write about the repression, things would have been different in our country.” 

And there is this cartoon from Mana Neyestani. A little boy asks a member of the security forces, “Who’s next after [former Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak?”

The reply: "You turn on the washing machine yourself? No,no,no!” 

(For those who can't get enough of the original video, here's a re-mix....)